New Year's Resolutions

So I always joke that I go by the Chinese New Year when it comes to making New Year's Resolutions, meaning I have no intention of making any at all.

But since becoming a mother (I almost wrote 'monster' - yes, it's been a rough day!) I have been overwhelmed by my inability to accomplish everything that NEEDS to be done. Therefore, I have had to prioritize like never before. After Annie was born, my fabulous, multi-collumned lists were reduced to three check boxes a day - I told myself I just had to accolmplish three things each day, just three. And giving her a bath counted as one of them.

Prioritizing like this has led to some painful personal sacrifices. Like having my mom over without getting all the dishes washed or the floor mopped beforehand. And like having to give up the dogs. (It's been one year.)

It's meant giving up a lot of my "I won't ever..."s - like "I won't ever let my child sleep in our bedroom on a regular basis." (It's been almost one year.)

It's meant holding off on most of my favorite activities - like reading. Actually, I just finished a book last week. (It took almost one year.)

I've changed so much. I never used to be a hit-the-snooze-button person. I'm still not, but I would be if I had a regular alarm clock instead of the two-year old human variety. But no mater how many times I hit Annie on the forehead  at 6:30 in the morning, she just won't snooze!

But in the middle of all this change of schedules and habits and personality, one thing has not only remained the same but has grown into the all-encompassing reality of my life - GOD'S WORD IS A SOLID FOUNDATION. It is a rock, it is bank, it is an anchor. It doesn't change but it can change me.

So as for New Year's Resolutions, I have just one. This year I want to fill my mind and my life with the Bible.

Last year I had made a resolution, too - I wanted to read through the whole Bible in a year. Not a big job, I know, but at the time I had a 19-month old and a one-month old and it felt like an absolute impossibility to me. Especially since for a couple of years I had made the same resolution each January only to quit somewhere in I or II Kings every time. And since I was exhausted from 4 or 5 wake-up calls every night and could hardly keep my eyes open through one paragraph (wide awake for Survivor, though! Funny how that is...). And since I even experienced a major set-back (well, it seemed like it at the time). I was proudly keeping up with my little printed reading schedule only to turn the page sometime in April to find that I had only been reading the Old Testament portion and hadn't even seen there was a daily New Testament checklist as well. But I made it and by the end of November, no less. Not to make it sound like it was my doing, though. It was amazing how the kids would sleep as long as I was reading my Bible, but the minute I got up to check e-mails or laid down to try to take a nap the kids would wake up!

So spurred on by that accomplished New Year's Resolution (my first ever!) I resolve to make this new checklist:
     30 Bible Verses
          []
          []
          []   etc...

The plan is to memorize 30 verses with Annie. I'll let you know how it turns out. (In about a year.)

A nicer mommy

Riley, Annie, and I were playing in the bedroom together this afternoon. Annie was building something on Riley's little tool station, and here's the transcipt of our conversation:

Annie: "I'm building something. I building a mommy."
Me: "What? I'm your mommy!"
Annie: "I'm building another mommy."
Me: "But I want to be your only mommy!"
Annie: "I'm building a nice mommy." [Starts to pound harder with the hammer]
Me: "Am I not a nice mommy?"
Annie: Pause. "I'm building a nicer mommy."

OUCH! But then Riley crawled over and gave me a great big CPR kiss.

Annie, however, totally oblivious to the pain she had just caused, continued to pound away on her new "nicer mommy."

Christmas 2010

Christmas Top Ten

10.  Pulling out the Christmas cds and being reminded how much Riley

has grown and changed in one year

9.  Listening to Annie "read" Olivia Helps with Christmas

8.  The GIANT Christmas tree

7.  My annual cookie exchange

6.  The Christmas Box for Annie and Riley

5.  A new TV for Benjy from Tim

4.  Annie pretending baby Jesus was everything from

her Lambie to her green beans on her plate

3.  Christmas Day, quiche and cinnamon rolls, and watching

Annie do the nativity set with Grandma Beck

(the beginnings of new traditions)

2.  Christmas week up at the cabin, snow, Carcassone, and family!

1.  Understanding more and more what it meant for God the Father to send Jesus his son

here for us - more meaningful to me every year now that I

have children of my own



SNOW!

 



TRADITIONS



 

PRESENTS

 



FAMILY



Crocodiles!

Annie's latest thing is crocodiles. The house is apparently infested with them. They're in the tub, in the backyard, and especially in the dining room and kitchen when Annie doesn't feel like eating anymore. She hunches her shoulders up, shivers with pretend fear and says "Here comes a GREAT BIG CROCODILE."

The other day I was enjoying a nice peaceful lunch with Riley, sans crocodiles. Annie had already eaten and was now playing quietly in her room. It was so rare and precious that I almost didn't care what she was up to. But after 15 minutes of eerie silence a feeling of dread came over me - what was she up to? Or up on?

I opened her closed door (red flag!) to find this:

Every toy in the toy bins and every blanket from the closet was dumped on the floor. Or so I thought. But Annie had an explanation: she had made a crocodile! If you look carefully at the picture above, the head is at the far right and the body is the rest of the mess. She even put a blanket that has a zig-zag edge on the head for the crocodile's teeth. I didn't mind picking up that mess, I was laughing so hard.

Annie and a GREAT. BIG. CROCODILE!

She likes to play with this tub of lentils and hide her crocodile in it.

Munonia

Blog silence does not equate actual silence here in the Beck household. In fact, there's been more noise than usual:

With Benjy out of work, he's got time to do lots of fun projects around the house. He's been installing two new work benches in the garage and in fact, right now, he's sanding a new corner shelf he just built in the living room. Nap times have been dodgy, what with the air-compressor and the drill and the nail gun going off.

Riley has survived a double ear infection and molars coming through all at the same time. I'm not sure I would have survived it if Benjy hadn't been home this week. He's perfected an ambulance siren kind of crying that just curls my toes.

But the big news has been with Annie. After several nights of non-stop coughing she came down with a fever that shot up to 104. So off to the doctor we went. After some concerned looks and a chest x-ray, her doctor told us she had pneumonia!! Or munonia, as she says. Oh, the mom-guilt that washed over me! The words "Annie, you have GOT TO STOP COUGHING!" that I had said to her the night before just kept going through my head over and over again.

The cure was almost worse than the sickness, though. After 2 days on Augmentin (and a trip to Target for a package of Pull-Ups!! if you get my drift) we were back at the doctor for a follow-up visit and she graciously changed the prescription to something a little less severe on the digestive system. It was at that appointment that we found out about Riley's ear infections. So they were both on the same antibiotic for a while, which I think really helped Annie make it through. Riley loved to take the medicine and would beg for more. And of course, anything he can do I[Annie] can do better.

So now we're on the other side and I have to say - God's timing is perfect! Annie got worse and we went to the doctor the very last week that we had insurance. Then Benjy was home all last week when the kids were so sick and was a huge help to me. So it really wasn't that bad. In fact, it was a pretty good week - getting to be all together.


Sleeping propped up for a week




Lots of non-cough inducing activities




The perfect gift from great grandma Cook - a doctor play set